Helene Hardy-Pierce has friends in high places. A roofing materials
specialist, she serves on the boards of three organizations and
does business on the apex of skyscrapers. When not working at
high altitudes, she sews colorful quilts for children and shelters
stray animals. You could say she likes to keep things covered.

Hardy-Pierce oversees roofing technical support and guarantee
services as director of Contractor Services for GAF Materials
Corporation, in Wayne, N.J.

Roofing offers what she calls the best view in the house. During
a consultation, she saw the U.S. Capitol from the roof of the
Treasury Building beside the White House. Artisans installed
many of the roofs in the Capitol, she said, describing roofing
repairs to sections of the Treasury Buildings historic Greek-revival
structure that required placement of waterproofing underlayment
beneath ornate 19th-century metal and tile.

Trained in mechanical engineering and business at the University
of Missouri, Rolla, Hardy-Pierce specializes in single-ply, built-up
roofing, modified bitumen membranes and asphaltic shingles. Since
1983, she developed standards for these materials with ASTM Committee
D08 on Roofing, Waterproofing and Bituminous Materials.

A board member of the Single Ply Roofing Institute, the Cool Roofs
Rating Council, and ASTM, she advocates hands-on learning. In
September on a commercial roof in Salt Lake City, she repaired
seams of a single-ply membrane with co-workers. None of us had
made these repairs in the past and I feel very strongly that you
dont try to write instructions or try to tell someone how to
do something if you havent done it yourself.

Hardy-Pierce has delighted children in domestic violence shelters
with handmade colorful quilts since 1999, providing a bright
moment for a kid in an awful situation. Shelters need clothes,
dishes, towels, blankets, anything to set up a home, she said.
Whether it be the World Trade Center or any type of horrific
set of circumstances, that could be you. I think people have a
responsibility to do the right thing.

A native of Missouri, Hardy-Pierce lives in northwest rural N.J.
with her husband Riley, an electronics support specialist. Their
bevy of pets includes nine stray animals. We live out in the
country and if they show up, they have a home for life. Among
them are two Siberian huskies and this old broken down bird dog
who drools over me and is devoted to my husband, she said. Were
putting the vets children through college.